There’s this interesting thing that happens for a lot of us during the holiday season — that stretch from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Year’s.
You appreciate the lights, the gatherings, the joy… and then almost automatically, you start reflecting on the year that’s nearly complete.
And if you’re like me, you might start with the self-critical stuff — the things you didn’t do, didn’t gain, didn’t experience.
I get it.
Here’s how I reframe that so it actually becomes something useful going forward.
The Phrase That Stuck With Me
There’s a line I heard somewhere along the way in my investing education journey…
“Everybody has problems. Being successful or being wealthy is just about having better problems.”
That really stuck with me.
Because you may look around at the end of the year — like I sometimes do — and notice areas of your life, whether it’s health, wealth, relationships, where things didn’t pan out the way you thought they might twelve months ago.
But sitting in that isn’t going to help you make any new gains for the following year.
A Different Way to Look Ahead
Instead, try looking at it this way.
Since you’re here reading this for trading education, think about your trading specifically and ask yourself:
What problem or challenge do I want to have related to my trading a year from now?
It could be something like:
“I’ve made 10% gains in my trading account, but now I’m not sure how much to take out versus how much to put back in.”
Or even something completely non-trading, like:
“I have the funds for a two-week Christmas vacation with my family, but I don’t know whether we should go to Hawaii or Australia.”
People sometimes call these “first-world problems,” and that’s okay. Everyone has problems — billionaires have problems and folks in poverty have problems. They’re just very different types of problems.
It’s Not Always About Money
Here’s an example that doesn’t have to do with winnings in your trading account —
Your “problem,” could be:
“I follow multiple trading educators, but now I feel like I need to pick one path and commit to it for a while to see if their methods really work for me.”
Or something even more everyday, like:
“I can get to the gym a couple of times a week — maybe not six days, but two. Which two days should those be so I can just rinse and repeat?”
For me, that’s Monday and Friday.
I experimented with mid-week workouts and it went really bad really fast. So I went back to Monday and Friday, and it’s a great set of bookends for the health of my body over the course of the workweek.
You Already Know Where You Want Improvements
I don’t want to give too many examples because I don’t want to bias you toward the kinds of problems I think about.
You know your life.
You know your trading.
And you know where you may want to see improvements.
Just remember — life isn’t about getting rid of problems. Life improvement and life progression just come with better problems. And you’re the one who gets to decide what those are, which also means you’re deciding what kind of life you want to live — in your personal world, in your trading, or anything else.
So here’s to problems… and to all of us having ten times better ones a year from now!
~ Hima
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